You’ll rarely, if ever, see Swain County coach Neil Blankenship in Jenkins Grocery in Bryson City — or Ingles or Beam’s Market, for that matter.

As the first-year coach of an amazingly successful football program, it’s not a question of time, although no doubt he’s usually pretty booked up, especially these days as the Maroon Devils (15-0) prepare to face Southwest (13-1) in the NCHSAA 1-AA championship game Saturday.

It’s all about focus for Blankenship, who is trying to lead Swain County to its second straight title and ninth overall.

“My wife handles all that because if you go to the grocery store you get caught about how things are going,” he said. “If it’s not going well, you’re going to get asked a bunch of questions. I don’t put myself a lot in that situation. I may run in for something here or there, but my wife she goes to the grocery store for me because you do get hit quite a bit.”

But Blankenship wouldn’t trade coaching at Swain County for any other place.

“I tell our kids they are so blessed to play in a place that cares so much about what we do,” he said. “There is never a problem with the pre-game meal. Churches feed us every Friday. They give us devotion.

“We’ve got people lining up to help our kids. We’ve got some kids that may not be as fortunate that we’re able to feed some because of what people do. It’s not like that everywhere. When we have a home game it’s packed.

“And our fans will travel; there ain’t no doubt about it. That’s the way it is. And it ain’t just in football. We won the volleyball state championship a few years ago and they traveled down for that.

“We are blessed to play where we play at. Yeah, there’s pressure. But it’s like I tell our kids, they’re so lucky to be where they’re at.”

Air Padgett

Known for its strong running game, Southwest over the recent years has shown an ability to throw the ball, particularly this season.

“We’ve thrown the ball more than we usually do, but with that being said, Shak has done a good job throwing the football, even though we haven’t hard to throw it a whole lot,” Southwest coach Phil Padgett said. “We’re a running football team and we’ve always been a running football team. That’s kind of what our MO has been since I’ve been here. I just believe in a strong running game.”

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Stampeding Stallions

And because of SWO’s running game, Padgett feels as if the Stallions are a good mascot for his school.

“We are called the Stallions and that’s probably a good name because we love to run,” he said. “We are going to run the football. It’s what we do and what our program is about. The kids have bought into it and it’s paid off at this point.”

More titles

Since joining the 1-A classification in 2009, Southwest has captured two state titles and made three final trips in girls’ soccer, won a state title in boys’ soccer this fall and saw its girls’ basketball team advance to a state title game.

The only thing missing it appears is a state football title. Perhaps that motivates the football team even more.

“I’m just excited for our football program, but I’m also excited for our athletic program because we’ve had such a great fall,” said Padgett, who is also Southwest’s athletic director. “I want us to win everything. Our coaches work so hard.”

Other duties

Not only do Padgett and Blankenship have to coach their teams this week, they have still have perform their administration duties as their school’s AD’s.

And that includes a lot of responsibilities.

“What we are going to do as far as transportation and costs?” Padgett said of his duties. “There’s a lot of things to pay for, that’s my concern.”

Meanwhile, Blankenship has had his phone ring many times since the Maroon Devils advanced to the final.

“We were meeting (in Greensboro) to exchange film on Saturday morning and I think I got like eight text messages from people asking me where we are staying and I didn’t have a clue,” he said. “You have to deal with all these questions. Your phone rings off the hook about this and that.”

One league, 2 finals

Swain County is not the only team from the Smoky Mountain Conference playing for a state title this year. Murphy is in the 1-A final against Plymouth.

Murphy is in the final for the third consecutive year, having beaten Jones Senior 21-6 last year.

“Last year was the first year it happened,” Blankenship said of Swain County and Murphy both advancing to the finals. “We were shocked and Murphy was too that they got that far last year. This year I think they expected to be here. Our conference is traditionally strong.”

SWO donations

Southwest High School’s booster club is accepting donations to help offset the cost of sending the football team to the state 1-AA finals against Swain County. Donations can be dropped off at the school’s front office. For more information, call Mike Smith at 381-4439.